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Web Design for the Terminally Bewildered

Started by NattyDread 2, October 22, 2021, 10:50:23 PM

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NattyDread 2

Looking for advice on easy to whack up websites. There seem to be so many options, I thought I'd ask on here before stumbling blindly into it.
My other half is working on a kids/community art project that's culminating in an exhibition and she was asking me how easy it would be to have some sort of website for it. It wouldn't be much more than a catalogue of images and a wee bit of blurb.
Is there an inexpensive and idiot-proof sort of thing that would fit the bill?
It would ideally be an absolute doddle to both set up and browse, and not look too shabby.

Any tips would be much appreciated. Cheers.

Mister Six

Try Squarespace - my missus used it for her mum's company. I think you can try it out before committing to any kind of contract.

(And use the offer code BUXTON for 10 percent off your first purchase... Adam Buxton's bloody ads have wormed their way into my brain permanently now, I think.)

touchingcloth

A question is whether it needs to be a full standalone website, or if an old school blog would work. Would it be a problem to have www.wordpress.com/myotherhalfskidsstuff as opposed to www.myotherhalfskidsstuff.com?

NattyDread 2

Quote from: touchingcloth on October 22, 2021, 11:20:58 PM
A question is whether it needs to be a full standalone website, or if an old school blog would work. Would it be a problem to have www.wordpress.com/myotherhalfskidsstuff as opposed to www.myotherhalfskidsstuff.com?

Not sure what the difference is between a blog and a website. But no, it wouldn't be a problem with the url thing.

touchingcloth

Quote from: NattyDread 2 on October 23, 2021, 12:35:54 AM
Not sure what the difference is between a blog and a website. But no, it wouldn't be a problem with the url thing.

I wasn't being too clear, sorry. You could setup a blog on something like Wordpress to host some blurb and images, but it would have a Wordpress URL rather than a custom one (custom ones are possible, but more involved to setup, and you'd need to pay for hosting).

A blog like that wouldn't be much more than a glorified Instagram page, though, so maybe an Instagram would work for this?

Zetetic

Instagram pages are an arse to access if you're not logged in to a Instagram account.


touchingcloth

True, and there's the whole Facebook/Zuckerberg issue so I retract my suggestion.

NattyDread 2

Thanks for the tips. Will check out Wordpress. Paying for hosting wouldn't be a problem but if the only difference is the url and the free one is easier to set up, then that may be our best bet.


QDRPHNC

I don't have experience personally with Squarespace, but I've had 3 clients come to me complaining about their lack of customer support.

My advice, use Wordpress and get yourself an Elementor Pro license. All Wordpress sites are technically "blogs", but it's really just a semantic difference. Wordpress handles "pages" vs "posts" a little differently in the back end, but that's all.

Feel free to PM me with any questions. I'm not a web developer, but I've set up light Wordpress sites for dozens of clients.

Edit: Actually for your purposes, the free version of Elementor may work well enough.


touchingcloth


QDRPHNC

Not sure, I've only ever used it on hosted websites. It's just a plugin though, so it should?

touchingcloth

Wordpress.com is fairly different from the self-hosted version, as I recall. I think you can do things like pick themes from the marketplace but I don't remember whether it has the full CMS backend.

QDRPHNC

Ah, ok. Ignore my advice. But with how cheap hosting is these days...

touchingcloth

Yeah, hosted Wordpress is great and not massively technically challenging to setup, but it's more challenging that just creating an account and picking a theme. It's my preferred way to create websites, but it does require getting a little bit into the website design side of things, even in its simplest form.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

This is something I have been meaning to get around to (for about ten bleeding years). I don't need anything particularly fancy - just some embedded images and video - so I would happily use a free Wordpress one. In the interest of maintaining a facade of professionalism though, I suppose I should probably have my own domain and email. What's the bare minimum I can get away with spending?

Cloud

I tend to suggest WIX when people come at me with "could do with a website, hint hint" (they know I do a bit as part of my job, but just not interested in doing more of it in my free time in exchange for a pint).  Looks very easy to use.  Similar to Squarespace, but it's another option if that one doesn't take their fancy.

touchingcloth

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on November 08, 2021, 12:02:43 PM
This is something I have been meaning to get around to (for about ten bleeding years). I don't need anything particularly fancy - just some embedded images and video - so I would happily use a free Wordpress one. In the interest of maintaining a facade of professionalism though, I suppose I should probably have my own domain and email. What's the bare minimum I can get away with spending?

The Explorer package from one.com would do what you need for €2.99/month.

Lite from GreenGeeks is $2.95/month (note the different currency).

I've used both hosts for Wordpress sites in the past, and they both offer simplified setup for them.

Both packages include a free domain name for a year, so you'd need to look into what renewal prices are like, which varies depending on whether you're a .com, .co.uk, whatever:

https://www.one.com/en/domain/prices (EUR)

https://www.greengeeks.com/support/article/domain-pricing/ (USD)

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Thanks for the recommendations. I see they're both doing Black Friday sales, so I should get my arse in gear and make a choice.  Would that be all I need to spend then? My sister has a Wix site, with personal domain and email, that costs 200 Euros a year, which is a heck of a lot more than I was expecting.

Also, it wasn't entirely accurate to say the site doesn't need to be fancy. I am a graphic designer, so I do want it to look tastefully eyecatching, even if it's not all bells and whistles. Is that possible with Wordpress (for free)? Do they automatically resize for mobile browsers?

QDRPHNC

Is this a portfolio site? If so, you might want to look into a Wordpress theme called Semplice. To call it a theme is underselling it, it's a very clean, professional, slick portfolio maker for creative types.

Can't speak for the UK, but here I pay about $15 US per year for a domain, and GoDaddy hosting starts at around $5 US per month.

I'm not sure why your sister is paying so much, she may have a bunch of added features you don't need. If you can get it for the right price, I'm sure Wix would be fine for your needs as well.

Oh, and while having a domain is important (although less important than it used to be), an email at your domain to go along with it, isn't some marker of professionalism these days. It used to be, but people are so used to seeing gmail accounts everywhere now, it doesn't really matter.

To be honest, I've been thinking of jacking in both my portfolio sites, including domains, and setting up a free portfolio on Behance, which - again - doesn't cause anyone to bat an eye these days.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I finally decided to pull my finger out and try making a Wordpress site. I figured there is no harm in trying, since it's free. Upon signing up though, they started waving their packages in my face (hosting packages, that is). Is that something I can ignore, if I'm going to go with an external hosting/domain provider?

It mentioned getting rid of adverts, which would obviously aid the whole professionalism goal.

These are quite possibly all stupid questions. Given the nature of freelance work though, I'm quite cagey about committing to any monthly expenditure.

QDRPHNC

If you're going with an external host, most of them provide one-click Wordpress installation.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

That is what it says on one.com, but I don't really understand what it means. I thought I'd go with them as it's currently £11.88 for the year in the Black Friday sale. It jumps up to 96 quid after that, plus a tenner to renew the domain. I suppose I can live with that, though, if the site leads to more business over the next year.

QDRPHNC

Sign up with the hosting, and when you get access to your dashboard, there will be option somewhere to install WordPress. Basically, sort out your domain / hosting first.

And yeah, just think of this as spending money to make money. Not sure what you do, but your first gig will most likely cover all your website costs for the year and remember you can write off all these expenses too.

touchingcloth

When you say "after signing up", whereabouts did you do this?

If you're self-hosting (whether through one.com or elsewhere), then you don't need to sign up with Wordpress at all. If you find yourself at wordpress.com as opposed to wordpress.org then something has gone wrong, as for self-hosting you just need to download the open-source packages from wordpress.org and then follow their instructions for installing it on your server.

HOWEVER, one-click installs do the download + install for you, so you should never have any need to visit either of Wordpress's domains yourself.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


QDRPHNC

To break this down a bit further, sign up for your hosting package, and register your domain at the same time. When you get access to your one.com dashboard, find the one-click install for Wordpress and do it. At that point you'll receive an email to complete the setup.

And that's it. All you need to do then, is go to claudesdomain.com/wp-admin/ to access your clean new Wordpress install, and from there you can install Elementor, Semplice, or whatever pagebuilder you've decided to use.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Fanks.

I signed up to one.com, since even I can stretch to 12 quid (plus VAT). Somewhat annoyingly, the one click wordpress installer isn't currently working - I'm hoping that's temporary.

I did sign up to wordpress.com first, but I assume I can just close that account. I might have a bit of a tinker with it while I wait for one.com to sort themselves out.

QDRPHNC

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on November 30, 2021, 01:59:58 PMFanks.

I signed up to one.com, since even I can stretch to 12 quid (plus VAT). Somewhat annoyingly, the one click wordpress installer isn't currently working - I'm hoping that's temporary.

I did sign up to wordpress.com first, but I assume I can just close that account. I might have a bit of a tinker with it while I wait for one.com to sort themselves out.

How're you coming along with this?

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Slowly. I finally got Wordpress installed and did a bit of a tinkering with it. The GUI doesn't seem quite as flexible as I'd hoped, but I used to use Joomla for work, so I'm sure I'll muddle through.

I looked up Semplice and they wanted 100-odd quid for the basic version, so I think I'll stick to muddling for now.